Rabbi Tells Priests Unified Religious Spirit Could Aid World Peace

A New York rabbi told a gathering of 1,800 Catholic priests and lay leaders here today that if the world were spared from a catastrophe developing from the current Russo-American crisis over Cuba, there was “a prospect of one of the most exciting and potentially enriching spiritual eras since the emergence of Judaism and Christianity as established religious traditions.”

The prediction was made by Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbawm, director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, in an address to the Quinquennial Congress of the Third Order of St, Francis. He told the Catholics that “the present tense situation, which almost raises in primitive form the ancient questions of who shall live and who shall die, stands in tragic and ironic contrast with the enormously moving and prophetic appeal issued Just five days ago by the Fathers of the Ecumenical Council” in Rome.

Rabbi Tanenbaum said that all religiously committed people should welcome the current Ecumenical Council in Rome, as many Protestants and Jews have done, “as a manifestation of the Divine Will at work in the world. “He declared that the emergence of a strengthened Roman Catholicism that Joins in, good faith with all other religions to overcome the threats of war “can only be a source of blessing to us all.”